D001-TAILANDIA JORNADA ELECTORAL

STORY: Polls opened in Thailand on Sunday (February 8) in a general election defined by a three-way battle between the country's conservative, progressive and populist camps, with no single party expected to secure a clear majority, prolonging the spectre of political instability.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul set the stage for the snap election in mid-December, amid a raging border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, in what analysts said was a move timed by the conservative leader to cash in on surging nationalism.

At that point, he had been in power for less than 100 days, taking over after the ouster of premier Paetongtarn Shinawatra of the populist Pheu Thai party over the Cambodian crisis.

Pheu Thai, backed by the billionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who himself went to jail just days after his daughter's removal, is down but not out, according to surveys.

But it is the progressive People's Party, with its message of structural change and reforms to Southeast Asia's second-largest economy, that has consistently led opinion polls during the campaign season.

Thai voters will also be asked during the vote to decide if a new constitution should replace a 2017 charter, a military-backed document that critics say concentrated power in undemocratic institutions, including a powerful senate that is chosen through an indirect selection process with limited public participation.